Method of correlating charging data records within an offline charging system

1. A method of correlating charging data records within an offline charging system, comprising:

selecting, at each of a plurality of sources, a same one of a plurality of charging functions in which to route charging information associated with a given call session or event, the plurality of charging functions corresponding to at least one of a plurality of charging data functions (CDFs) and a plurality of charging gateway functions (CGFs); and

correlating, at the selected charging function, the routed charging information from each of the plurality of sources.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sources correspond to a plurality of network elements and the plurality of charging functions correspond to the plurality of charging data functions (CDFs).

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

receiving accounting information associated with the given call session or event from at least one of the plurality of network elements at the selected CDF;

generating, at the selected CDF, one or more charging data records (CDRs) or partial CDRs based on the sent accounting information;

determining whether to stop generating CDRs or partial CDRs based on a stop triggering event;

consolidating the CDRs and partial CDRs generated by each network element into a consolidated CDR associated with that network element based on the determining step; and

wherein the correlating step correlates the consolidated CDRs by merging the consolidated CDRs.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising: forwarding the CDRs and partial CDRs generated during the generating step to a centralized database, the centralized database receiving CDRs and partial CDRs from at least one CDF other than the plurality of CDFs;

querying the centralized database for the CDRs and partial CDRs associated with the given call session or event after the stop triggering event occurs;

receiving the queried CDRs and partial CDRs from the centralized database; and

wherein the consolidating step consolidates at least based on the received, queried CDRs and partial CDRs.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the stop triggering event is the received accounting information including a stop indication.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the stop indication only triggers the stop triggering event if received from a designated one of the plurality of network elements.

7. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

formatting the correlated charging information for a billing domain; and

sending the correlated charging information to the billing domain.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sources correspond to a plurality of charging data functions (CDFs) and the plurality of charging functions correspond to the plurality of charging gateway functions (CGFs).

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: receiving at least one CDR or partial CDR associated with the given call session or event from at least one of the plurality of CDFs at the selected CGF;

determining whether to stop generating CDRs or partial CDRs based on a stop triggering event;

consolidating the received CDRs and partial CDRs generated by each CDF for the given call session or event into a consolidated CDR associated with that CDF; and

wherein the correlating step correlates the consolidated CDRs by merging the consolidated CDRs.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising: forwarding the CDRs and partial CDRs received during the receiving step to a centralized database, the centralized database receiving CDRs and partial CDRs from CGFs other than the plurality of CGFs;

querying the centralized database for the CDRs and partial CDRs associated with the given call session or event after the stop triggering event occurs;

receiving the queried CDRs and partial CDRs from the centralized database; and

wherein the consolidating step consolidates at least based on the received, queried CDRs and partial CDRs.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the stop triggering event is one of the received CDRs or partial CDRs being based on accounting information, sent from a network element to one of the plurality of CDFs, including a stop indication.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the stop indication only triggers the stop triggering event if received from a designated one of the plurality of network elements.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

formatting the correlated charging information for a billing domain; and sending

the correlated charging information to the billing domain.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

formatting the correlated charging information for a billing domain; and

sending the correlated charging information to the billing domain.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the formatting step is performed at a charging gateway function (CGF).

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the sending step sends the correlated charging information as a charging data record (CDR) Mfie, the CDR file including at least one CDR or partial CDR.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selecting step selects, at each of the plurality of sources, the same one of a plurality of charging functions based on one of a (i) call session or event identifier and (ii) a subscriber identifier.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the call session or event identifier is an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Identification (ICID) which identifies the given call session or event.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the subscriber identifier identifies a subscriber associated with the given call session or event.

20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

routing, from at least one source other than the plurality of sources, charging information to one of the plurality of charging functions other than the selected charging function; and

querying a centralized database, from the selected charging function, for the charging information routed from the at least one other source; and

receiving, from the centralized database, the queried charging information,

wherein the correlating step performs correlation based at least in part on the queried charging information.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the offline charging system includes one of an offline bearer charging network, an offline service charging network and/or an offline charging Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the correlating step includes merging the routed charging information for each of the plurality of sources into a single file.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selecting step selects, at each of the plurality of sources, the same one of the plurality of charging functions by cross-referencing mapping table with a subscriber identifier.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein the mapping table lists a particular charging function associated with an assigned subscriber identifier for each subscriber.